The farm is located in Mozonte, Nueva Segovia, which is reaching up to one of the highest points in Nicaragua. This region is well known for its high quality of coffee. Most of the farms are relatively small in size and family owned and operated. The farmers and their families are hard- working and proud of producing coffee of a very high quality.
Katherin and her family are investing a great deal of effort in the farm where they are working on a daily basis, their farm is just shy of 10 acres and the soil is sandy, rich in clay and loam. They are eager to achieve the highest quality of their crops which are Caturra, red and yellow Catuai, Maragogype and Catimor grown under the shade of guava, lemon, orange, avocado and oak trees.
Katherin picks and processes her coffee herself and this lot was dried on raised beds for two weeks.
The long, slow drying at high altitude gives the coffee better longevity and excellent quality in the cup.
Katherin also grows a range of vegetables for the local market.
Cafetos de Segovia is a dry mill located in Ocotal and surrounded by coffee land, making it easy for producers to deliver the wet parchment the same day as they harvest and process it.
In 2015, a local producer family realised that the prices paid for coffee cherries in the region were too low and that they could produce high-quality coffee on their own farm. They decided to create a dry mill to add value to their product, and that mill is now run by sisters Martha and Ana, along with their team.
The family own a few farms that were inherited from Martha and Ana's father. Like many properties in the area (in the north, bordering Honduras), the story of the farms ownership is a complex one. From 1975-1979 the Nicaraguan revolution hit the entire country, but it was even more intense at the Honduran border, forcing the family to emigrate to the USA. They returned to Ocotal six years later to find that their house and much of their farmland had been seized by the government. Only the house was returned to them they had lost more than 100 manzanas (70ha) of coffee farm.
The dry mill services their farms and greenhouse which they built in 2020 to grow experimental lots and more delicate varieties but also the coffee of some relatives and a few non-related producers from the area. In total, 47 other producers work with Cafetos de Segovia. During peak harvest, up to 300 quintales per day is delivered to the mill, which has a drying capacity of 3,000 quintales at any one time (1 quintal = approximately 46kg green beans). Up to 30 people work at the mill during the season.
Most of the coffee is delivered as wet parchment or cherries and 80% of the lots are washed. The drying is usually started on a patio, in the shade for 5-6 days and then in full sun. All patios are covered with black net so that the coffee is not laid directly on the floor. Shade drying is necessary as the sun hits hard at this lower altitude (less than 900masl). The naturals are moved every 3-4 hours and the coffee is piled during the hottest hours of the day.
Cafetos de Segovia submits lots to the national Cup of Excellence every year, and always ranks highly.